Well, I want to thank Mr. Tempelsman for that very kind and
thoughtful introduction. For those fellow Trade Ministers in the room, I thought when he was opening,
and hementioned how trade affected so many interests across our societies, that we could
say, "Yes, and they have the phone number of every Trade Minister and they let us know about all
their interests too."

I want to thank CCA for organizing this very important private
sector component of this year’s AGOA Forum and for inviting me to be here with you. And I’m
especially pleased to be here with my friend, Minister Kituyi of Kenya.

I’m exceptionally pleased that I’ve been able to participate in
all three AGOA Forums held to date, including the one last year that was very ably hosted by our
friends from Mauritius. I have found these events to be extraordinarily useful in terms of taking
stock about we have accomplished, but also in trying to get a sense of what we should
be focusing on in the way forward.

And of course, the discussions and exploration of business
opportunities taking place at this private sector session are certainly as if not more important than
the government-to-government meetings that will take place. Because our efforts on the policy
side will ultimately only bear fruit if we are able to shape an environment in which you - the
businesspeople, entrepreneurs, and investors - can be successful in your work.

As I seek to learn more about sub-Saharan Africa in late 2003, I
reflect on the fact that roughly three-and-a-half years have past since the passage of AGOA. And I
have to say, I see many countries – more than ever before – that want to move beyond
aid-dependency to try to use trade to develop their economic growth and development and pattern of
opportunity. And as Mr. Tempelsman said, the question is how to integrate trade and aid
effectively.

The leaders of these countries – including such trailblazers such
as President Museveni of Uganda and President Mogae of Botswana, both of whom I had the
pleasure to meet recently here in Washington, understand that sub-Saharan Africa has fallen
behind much of the rest of the world economically over past decades and that to catch up, African
countries need to figure out how to participate more fully in the global economy.

Now many of these countries – and there is perhaps no better
recent example than Kenya under President Kibaki – have undertaken difficult economic and
political reforms designed to create an atmosphere in which private sector-led growth can flourish. And
this is the context in which the Bush Administration has approached U.S. trade policy toward
Africa.

2

We certainly share the view that fuller integration of sub-Saharan
African countries into the

world economy is crucial for long-term economic growth and
development.

We believe that greater involvement of African countries in the
multilateral trading system is in

the America’s interests as well. Africans clearly have not shared
fully in the benefits of global

trade liberalization over the past few decades.

We have other interests at stake, too, in Africa’s economic
success, including countering poverty,

spreading free market values and good governance, assisting in the
development of the rule of

law, creating a sound economic base for democracy, and the opening
of relatively untapped

markets for American businesses.

It seems to me that there are four key challenges African
countries face as they seek to become

more competitive internationally: establishing rule of law and
property rights, a climate for

investment, developing of infrastructure, and the all-important
human capacity.

Now first, in recent years, African countries have taken great
strides to strengthen the rule of law

and to improve governance. As Mr. Tempelsman mentioned, the NEPAD
Action Plan

recognizes however, that much still needs to be done to try to
build effective governing

institutions free of corruption and supportive of open
markets.

As the Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto has described, property
rights are also a key factor

in economic growth because they provide the opportunity for
people, especially poor people,

poor farmers – to be able to keep and build on the rewards that
they create. And this is certainly